In a world of expensive disposable electronics, his studio CSYS has created a gadget that could last a lifetime. His lamp uses the exact same LED bulbs as any other product on the market, but through clever design alone, will give you up to 50 years of light from them.
CSYS did a lot of research looking at LED desk lamps. They ripped apart very high-end LED downlight fittings. They thermo and electrical tests to find out what was inefficient or bad about them. Then they found inspiration in the way computer companies cool laptops.
“LEDs are semiconductors,” Jake explains, “and semiconductors are used in computers. And the way they cooled semiconductors in computers was using heat pipes.”
Heat pipes are essentially copper tubes with a vacuum inside. But inside that vacuum resides a single drop of moisture. Water evaporates at very low temperatures in a vacuum, so ambient heat transforms this water into vapor, the vapor shoots from the hot end of the heat pipe to the cool end. There, the water cools and condenses, making its way back to the hot end of the pipe. The cycle repeats to create an infinite loop of efficient, passive cooling.
So in the CSYS, the entire cross beam (which holds the LED) is one gigantic heat pipe. This heat pipe is supported by a scaffolding of heat sinks. When you combine all of that surface area, heat within the LEDs dissipates with remarkable efficiency.
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